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In the last few years, Americans have taken a deep look into our own lives and the value of our history, our religion, ourselves really. Some things became increasingly clear to many of us. We value our families, our country and what it means to us, our history, our future, and probably most pointedly, our work. As many had the threat looming over their heads for over a year of loosing their work for an indefinite period of time, I heard so many concerns that focused less on livelihood and more on their work. Work gives us meaning and belonging. For the past few decades, I think we’ve been making career choices based on the paycheck and the possibilities and not on what really makes us tick. This is practical, but at the end of your life, will you be happy with it?

Proverbs 23:4-5 says,

”Don’t wear yourself out to get rich;
because you know better, stop!
As soon as your eyes fly to it, it disappears,
for it makes wings for itself
and flies like an eagle to the sky.”

If you haven’t taken the time to stop and take stock of your life, you should. Or maybe you are graduating this year and are giving more serious thought to your life’s work. Consider these words and choose your path on more than just money. Like riches, your life tends to grow wings and fly away – ask anyone in their 60’s or older and they will tell you that life is brief.

During my years as a painter in the field, I frequently heard older men complaining about their choice of working in the trades and how they tell their kids to do ANYTHING else. What a shame! I feel sorry for them – and a little confused. I always enjoyed my choice, but I am a fourth generation painter so maybe it’s just in the blood. I don’t know but I can’t imaging anywhere else I’d rather be! New job sites from time to time, freedom to work at your own pace (i.e. not factory work), and meeting lots of new people – I love it. Not to mention taking a naked building or building in disrepair and putting a fresh new look is enthralling. I mean, some color schemes do more than breath new life into a room, they change the entire meaning of the space. Lighting and the finishes are what make a space what it is! I am thrilled to be a part of that transformation!

I think the problem is that we have a tendency to blame our circumstances on our careers or anything other than ourselves and our poor choices. When your life isn’t turning out the way you planned, you should stop and take stock. Most of the time I realize it is of my own doing and usually just plain old bad thinking. God has a way of making your life turn out in ways that are greater than your dreams if you will just take the time and care to see it! So why DO I tell my kids to go into the trades?

First, the trades are a much better place to work than they used to be. We have left behind the days of the adversarial employer/employee and client/business relationships. Most people want a partner who is vested in the vision of their business and not a reluctant laborer. We’ve worked hard to craft a company that thrives on this culture. Our employees are value team members who add real value to our product. We don’t just paint, we paint with distinction and with an eye to our clients needs. We do this out of a genuine are for our employees and our clients. This is what it means to do unto others as you’d have them do to you. The golden rule should guide all of our actions and thoughts. You’d might be surprised how much peace this will bring to your life and the lives around you.

Second, you can actually make a good living in the trades. I have nine children and have always had as many mouths to feed as I could handle, but God was faithful to provide. I don’t think we ever missed a meal! In fact, most of our crew members will make around $25 per hour within two years of hire. If you work 45 hours a week, that is over $60,000. Your average college graduate only makes between $45,000 and $55,000 per year on the same hours. But, it’s not about the money anyway. Just a point that tradesman actually make decent wages. You can start a career in painting straight from high school, have no college debt, and become a Team Leader making $75,000 in as little as three years if you are hard working and don’t shy away from responsibility.

Finally, it isn’t really about the money anyway, right. It should be about the kind of life you want. If you want to be a marine biologist, you are going to need at least 6 years of college – go for it, that what I though I wanted to be when I was a senior in high school. But I think I am happier now than I would have been. Oh, yeah, before I forget – you need to know this! Happiness is a choice. Disney is lying to you when they say you can be anything you want to be. You can’t, but sure you can try for it. Maybe you’ll make it. Happiness isn’t determined by how many of your dreams come true, it really is a choice you make each night before you go to bed and every morning when you wake up. Just as the happy people why they are happy. They will all have quite different reasons, but that is what they choose to make them happy. Let it not be true of you that youth is wasted on the young. Be wise by making wise choices and choosing to be happy!

As a bonus, some of our more “modern” way of thinking hasn’t made it into the trades yet. The safest places are the places where people are still plain talking and unafraid to hurt peoples feelings, most of us find this a better way to live – to know that there are real disagreements, but we can respect each other despite of those differences. Victimhood isn’t a way of life with too many in the trades. So come join us in our work, you won’t regret it!

Still not convinced, give me a call at 317-528-9500 today – I’d be happy to sit down with you over a coffee (or whatever your drink of choice is these days) and have a chat about it!

The garage is often the most forgotten room of the house. Whether you keep your car in the garage or use is for a large storage space, you probably don’t like to spend much time there and for good reason. Garages, like basements, can be the dingiest place in the house. Now imagine if you were to spend a little bit of time and money painting the walls, ceiling, and floor. Then you install some decent shelving and organize everything. Now you have another room of your house you can be proud of. Not only proud, but you can actually find things in there now! The first step is a good clean out and painting of those floors. Lucky for you, we have several good options that will fit a tight budget to a long lasting professional job.

We can paint most garage floors for as little at $1.50 per square foot if you empty the garage. For this budget price, we clean the floor with a scrubber to remove all dirt and grease. We fill any cracks with self-leveling caulk and trim the top when after is sets up. Next, we apply two coast of an aliphatic epoxy paint that adheres to almost any substrate. From here, you can add color chips and a clear coat if you choose to for as little as another $1 per square foot. This process is guaranteed for two years from disbonding. An average two car garage with this system will cost about $1,250.

If you want a more durable finish, we will grind all the existing coating off your floor, fill all cracks with an epoxy filler, and apply a primer, two coats of urethane two component floor coating with a clear topcoat. This system will cost $4.50 per square foot but comes with a 5 year disbonding warranty. A typical two car garage for this system will cost around $3,400.

If you need help unloading your garage, we can supply the labor for that too for an additional fee and we can help arrange a portable storage pod for your belongings while the work is in process. We typically need three to four days to perform this work due to cure times between coats.

Every time I run my truck through the car wash and detail the interior, it feels like I just bought a new truck. Clean, fresh smelling, and shiny! The same is true of your building – a good cleaning is one of the best bangs for the buck. A thorough pressure washing will remove dirt and fade from your building and years of staining from your parking lot and sidewalks.

Our professional services will show up at a convenient time for you so we don’t get in the way of your operations. We then pretreat all surfaces with an environmentally safe detergent that will loosen up all the stubborn grime. Next, our professionally trained crew will carefully and skillfully clean all the surfaces on your building from the delicate EIFS to the CMU and sidewalks. We guarantee that you will notice a difference and so will your customers.

Our sales team can put together a comprehensive quote for you as most quotes will need to be custom crafted, but an average car dealership building will be priced around $4,000 and another $1,000 to add all concrete sidewalks and approaches. A smaller fast food restaurant will normally cost around $1,500 to pressure wash the building and all sidewalk/drive through concrete. If we show up for the quote and don’t think we can make it look better, we will tell you upfront so you can spend your hard earned cash elsewhere.

Give us a call today to setup your quote visit!

One of the most frequently asked questions we get is whether stained trim can be painted. The simple answer is yes, we can do that! Let me step you through the process. But before we begin, are you really sure you want to paint that beautiful product of nature? It took decades for that tree to produce those beautiful rich grains and some craftsman took the care to sand, stain, and apply that clear coat to make that luxurious deep wood come to life! Okay, now that that is over, here is how we prep and paint stained trim.

First, we perform a series of tests to see what is on the trim. In most cases, it is simply an oil based polyurethane which is pretty simple to re-coat. But we also run into lacquers and even catalyzed urethanes that can be difficult to get paint to stick to. By rubbing several solvents on the trim, we can determine what is on your trim and only then can we come up with the correct steps to ensure a great finish for your trim. In most cases, a simple sand down followed by a bonding primer will get your trim ready for just about any topcoat.

Second, we prep you trim according to our findings. A healthy sanding and a bonding primer is suitable for most existing finishes. You will want to make sure you or your contractor always perform adhesion tests on these types of surfaces. If the adhesion test is not successful, more sanding or a different bonding primer might be necessary. Once you do get good adhesion, you will want to use a better grade trim paint. We prefer Sherwin Williams Emerald Urethane Trim Enamel, Benjamin Moore Advance, or PPG Ultralast for most trim applications.

Finally, after you’ve prepped and applied your bonding primer, make sure the paint is applied with either spray finish or with higher grade, new brushes to ensure minimal brush marks. You will want to make sure at least two coats are applied to ensure a good build of paint to make a durable finish! Our company paints trim at around $2.50 per linear foot for most new and repaint applications.

Steel buildings are a good investment for many businesses who need lower cost space and are very versatile from storage to office uses. Most steel buildings will need painted within 20 years of their erection. If you wait too long and see rust starting to appear, the preparation and priming will set you back a good bit more than if you catch it in time. Most of the time, all you need to do is pressure wash, spot prime with a DTM (direct to metal) primer and paint with a good grade exterior paint. If rust has started to appear in more than 10%, you will need a full prime with DTM primer or it will need to be painted with DTM paint to make sure the rust is held at bay. Nothing will ruin your investment faster than ignoring the warning signs that your metal building needs maintenance to keep it in good, leak proof shape.

Our team can get your building painted in almost any color you want and even paint a stripe on it if that’s your thing! We can use standard exterior paints like PPG AcriShield, PPG Permanizer, or PPG PitTech+ for a more durable finish. We also offer longer lasting SWP SherCryl for more fade resistant durability. For standard paints our quotes usually come in at around $7,000 for a 40×60 building with a side eave height of 16’. Roof painting is a bit more as it usually involves a lift rental and requires additional prep and better paint. A roof on a 40×60 building usually costs around $6,000 and includes SWP Shercryl or PPG PitTech+ SG and will come with a five year warranty.

If you have a steel building that is looking a little dull or even starting to rust, you should give us a call now and save your investment! Our team is eager to serve you – call 317-528-9500 today to get your free quote.

One of the questions we most often get as a painting contractor is whether you can paint vinyl siding. While the quick answer is yes, you can paint vinyl siding, there are some considerations you need to be aware of. First, make sure the siding is thoroughly washed. Vinyl is actually quite porous especially as it ages. It also degrades in the UV rays of the sun so it fades pretty quickly. You will wan to wash off all contaminants including mildew, dirt, and the degraded vinyl before you paint it. Just remember the basic rules for painting anything is that it must be dry, dull, stable, and clean.

Second, you need to be aware that you should never paint vinyl siding a much darker color than its factory color. You can go slightly deeper, but too deep and the vinyl will take on too much heat and warp – then you will have to replace all of the vinyl on your home or business. Some paint suppliers sell a “Vinyl Safe” paint that solves this problem and does work quite well, our recommendation, however, is never paint vinyl a color deeper than 1/2 way from the current color to black. This is an art more than a science, but our estimators and project managers can help you decide the appropriate color depth for your painting project.

Finally, make sure you get at least a three year warranty on the paint job. Most failures will happen in the first year (this is why the one year warranty is the industry norm), but for vinyl you will want at least a three year warranty to ensure your job will hold up to the hottest of the summer sun. Another final thing to watch our for is the movement of the vinyl. As the years go by, your vinyl will expand and shrink with the seasonal flow. This will reveal narrow 1/4 unpainted overlaps. Our crews will gently move your vinyl to the one side so that this won’t happen to you. And if it does, our five year exterior warranty as you covered! If you have an exterior vinyl paint job you’d like us to look at, give us a call to set up your free consultation.

One of the biggest frustrations of building owners is failing paint on areas like doors, frames, trim, and railings. There is nothing more disappointing than paying good money for that shinny new paint job only to have the paint on these areas degrading and rubbing off of these high traffic surfaces. Ultimately, it doesn’t have to be this way. Paint failures always break down into one of three categories – bad prep (adhesion issues), bad paint choices (not appropriate for the use), or abuse. Let me explain.

Some of the failures we encounter are just simply back preparation. Skin oils and other contaminants are common on doors, frames, and railings. To get paint to stick, we often begin with a chemical wipe down. This is in the form of a heavy duty cleaner that will remove these contaminants. We then abrade the surface by sanding it just in case we missed anything, this step will both remove any remaining contaminant and give the surface a slight profile so the new coating can key into the small abrasions. Finally we will always perform a quick adhesion test to ensure our paint will bond to the surface. If not, we will explore the option of using a chemically bonding primer (commonly called a bonding primer) to ensure your new paint job will adhere for years to come.

Second has to do with a poor choice of paints. Too often we run into standard commercial wall paint applied to doors or railings. This will never give you the service you need out of your paint as it isn’t made to stand up to the use of most railings and doors. If you have standard paint on these surfaces, it will have to be removed if you want your paint job to be durable and look good for years to come. For most doors, trim, and railings, we recommend a product like Waterborne Alkyd Urethane Trim enamel from Sherwin Williams or Breakthrough from PPG or Advance from Benjamin Moore. These products stand up to skin oils and have a tough enamel surface after about a 15 day cure. Don’t let a contractor talk you into DTM – this paint is too soft and won’t hold up to oils over time.

Finally, let’s talk abuse. I’ve had people say to me, “I took my key to the paint and it scratched off!” My response is always that paint is just a thin layer of plastic. Your vehicles paint is quite durable, but wouldn’t even hold up to a key scratching it! Too often we say “paint failures” when we really just don’t want to do the hard work of discipline and maintenance. From boxes being slid down railings to wedding rings rubbing on doors, the reality is that paint is just a very thin layer of plastic polymer. It will scuff and tear when service carts are pushed up against it. There are products that will give you good service in almost any circumstance, but it is still just paint.

We can help you pick the right product for your next project, just give us a call at 317-528-9500 and we will schedule an appointment to look over your project and recommend the best product for your project!

Have you ever went into a retail store and the sales floor is well thought through and immaculately kept? Hopefully we all have. Auto dealers are one such example. You walk in and are greeted by clean, slick tile floors, perfect walls and ceilings, and displays that draw your eyes to them through contrasting colors with information about the products they are selling. I bring up auto dealers because their showrooms are often the most immaculate places on earth! They are selling cars worth tens of thousands of dollars and it is worth the effort to make the experience match the price of the product. In fact, other than our homes, our cars are probably the most expensive material thing we will ever buy. Everything in the front of house areas is kept with the intent to keep you focused on the task at hand – buying that new car!

But, inevitably you have to visit the back areas – areas like the lounge, hallways, offices, and restroom. You notice that the lounge is a little grimy and the general manager had the lot crew paint the restrooms last winter when they went through that winter slump. There is paint on the floor. The grid is poorly cut with paint on it in areas and some areas where the last paint job is peeking through. Your attention is now divided. One bad decision has put you off your game. Your mind starts to wander, the dissonance is disconcerting. You wonder why the pristine front end and lack of regard for these oft visited forgotten areas? You begin to wonder if you really need that new car after all. If you are that general manager, I can assure you the price of taking short cuts is not worth the cost. Painting these areas is not as pricey as you might think and, I am guessing here, that for the sale of a car or two you will have more than paid for the cost of a professional commercial paint job. And, yeah, I know that we all think business owners make more than they do on each sale, but it’s the cost of losing the sale that I’m talking about. If you are like most businesses, you are paying an inordinate amount of money to even get people to stop in or ring your phone! Don’t waste money to save money!

So how much does it cost to paint these back areas of your dealership, not as much as you think. An average lounge is around 20×30 with a 12’ acoustical ceiling. If you just patched and painted the walls in that lounge, you would be looking at $1,000. Add two average size restrooms with four stalls and your total will come to around $2,200. We can often come to a lower cost by simply adding more areas. To paint all the front areas, offices, hallways, lounges, restrooms, and break room in an average size dealership, our quote typically comes in around $9,500 in all.

On a final note, fresh paint brings an excitement to your facility. It can motivate employees to care more if you set it up that way – you know, don’t tell them you are begrudgingly painting the place because they don’t take care of it. Have a meeting and tell them how much you care for them AND the building. You want a nice place for them to work and you are going to need their help caring for the facility. It’s their home away from home. Customers are also inclined to think positively of an upgrade. Our company works with you so the work feels consistent with your dealership’s look and feel. We send out a clean, trained, professional team who will impress. Some of our customers even have our crew work during business hours so their customers know they are working on things and have a professional crew working is a thing of beauty in and of itself!

The short answer to this question is the you can paint storefront windows frames. Most storefront systems are made out of anodized aluminum – you can read more about the anodizing process here – https://www.anodizing.org/page/what-is-anodizing. Painting anodized aluminum is pretty straightforward and no special process has to be followed other thank a heavy duty cleaning to remove atmospheric contamination, a bonding primer, and a good fade resistant exterior grade paint. For painted storefront mullions, a bit more investigation must take place to determine how to proceed. Some silicon and Kynar coatings present more challenges, but there are methods to paint over those coatings too. Very rarely, will a coating have to be completely removed in order to paint storefront windows. At Indiana Painting, we typically spray all of our primers and topcoats when painting storefronts Systems. This ensures a quality, factory like finish so your facility and keep that well cared for feeling!

Our go to products for storefronts are TSP Substitute for cleaning, 220 grit sandpaper for sanding, MultiSpec Primer for priming, and either Sherwin Williams Emerald Urethane Trim Enamel or PPG Breakthrough. If you have an extremely harsh environment, we would recommend a two part epoxy primer and a two part urethane topcoat for added durability.

The cost of the bonding primer and Breakthrough system will run you about $50 per linear foot of window on each side. So, if you have a storefront window that tis 50’ long and 8’ tall, the price would be around $2,500 per side (interior/exterior).

One of the most challenging things to paint are decks and fences. These challenges include getting the wood clean and dry enough to hold stain. The wood most decks and fences are built out of is some variety of cedar or pine. The soft wood does not lend itself to being pressure washed without a great deal of attention and care. Too much pressure and the wood fibers will expand and tear causing them to look “fuzzy”. Once this happens, it will be very difficult to get the wood to hold stain for any length of time. The three dimensional nature of most decks and fences make it difficult to clean them well. Poorly cleaned surfaces are the primary reason paint fails. For paint to stick, as the saying goes, the surface must be clean, dry, dull, and stable. These are just the beginning of the challenges your deck and fence wood faces.

You should be aware that your deck and fence are perfectly situated for failure. If you have a shady yard, the wood will be wet for prolonged periods after the overnight dew or a rainstorm. Moisture is a problem for most waterborne coatings especially on a vertical surface list a deck! The water will have the effect of softening the paint making it susceptible to scratching as your rearrange furniture across the surface or even by walking across the surface with a rock stuck in the treads of your shoe. Being in a sunny yard has even more challenges. UV rays are brutal on paint and stain. The intense heat and UV rays from the sun will take a huge toll on your coatings!

Once prepped appropriately, the proper material must be selected. If your deck or fence is made from cedar wood, you will have to ensure that you select a product designed to be compatible with the resins and tannins in cedar. If you apply a typical waterborne stain or paint to cedar the oils will cause it to release and peel off prematurely. There are many primers and stains designed for cedar application, but just be sure you’ve selected a product that is compatible. Most typical stains are made for pine as that is the most common scenario. Once the product is selected, now let’s talk application.

Stain should be applied to all exposed surfaces of the wood. Most fence and deck boards are too close together to apply the material to the edges of the board very well. Anywhere the material is not adequately applied will allow moisture to be absorbed into the wood and this will loosen the bond between the wood fibers and the coating. This process is exacerbated in the colder months when the surface dries much more slowly. Any water in the fiber that freeze will cause expansion and will cause disbonding even more quickly. As you can see, decks and fences are difficult to maintain! I would not expect more that five years of service from the coatings on my outdoor wood surfaces. You can greatly extend the life of these coatings by proper maintenance. Pressure wash your fences and deck every spring. I would apply another coat of stain to a deck every other year and to a fence every three years or so. You can reduce the issues with decks and fences by doing the job correctly to begin with, with frequent cleanings, and by applying one fresh coat often. This frequent coating ensures that any damaged coating is repaired so you keep the UV rays and water away from the wood. Stain is, after all, a sacrificial coating. The sun and weather degrades the stain instead of your wood!